When The Veil Is Lifted

This past Sunday our pastor was recovering from the flu. When I asked him how he was doing, he said he was about 70% recovered. He then shared this with the church. As he began to preach there appeared to be a sincere heartfelt message flowing from deep within. A middle-aged man always makes a point to sit in front of us. He is an African American who lived in New Orleans, in our home state, Louisiana. He always gives me a hug. He worships! At the end of the message a surmountable number of people were at the altar praying; others sat in the pews with their heads bowing as they were praying. When we were dismissed, Greg turned to my wife and me, shivered, and said, “That gave me the chills.” I noticed the pastor standing upfront with a unique look on his face. Humorlessly, I later told him he had lied to us. I said, “You told us you were 70% toward normal. You were 110%.”

One of the greatest awestruck experiences I had was while serving as a minister of youth. This was exceedingly early in my ministry. The pastor had asked me to bring a devotion for the youth—about 8—as the church prepared for a revival. Man lived in a mobile home park and a group of youth would start out playing different games; however, they would quickly move into a time negative language and fighting. He was a new Christian. Yet he told the youth that if they did not go to church with him, they could not assemble in the park. I recall seeing his van almost dragging the ground one Wednesday evening. Youth started coming from areas around the church. Almost every week we were baptizing youth and adults.

The brother of the man brought the youth and who had been active in Ku Klux Klan. His group had killed an African American man, and he moved to Louisiana from Mississippi to avoid getting strongly associated with the killing. He was active in our church and was influencing people Christ. One Saturday morning at a meeting he told us about attempting to contact his son. (Castor Baptist Church, Leesville, Louisiana)

The overarching question for the text for this morning, is why did God give the ten Commandments? Why did God have Moses to carve them on stone?

I. CONTEXT: THE CONCERNS LEADING UP TO THE ASCENT TO MT SINIA

A refresher. Why were the Israelites in Egypt? The Israelites went to Egypt due to a devastating famine in Canaan. Jacob, a Hebrew patriarch, traveled there with his extended family to find a better life and to be close to his son, Joseph—whose brother had sold him as a slave to Egypt. They eventually became slaves. Jacob’s and his descendants lived there for 430 years.

40-42 The Israelites had lived in Egypt 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, God’s entire army left Egypt. God kept watch all night, watching over the Israelites as he brought them out of Egypt. Because God kept watch, all Israel for all generations will honor God by keeping watch this night—a watchnight. Exodus 12:40-41

During the time, the Israelites were in Egypt, there were 4 generations (Genesis 15:16), Levi, Kothath, Amram, and Moses. When the Israelites left Egypt, they brought sociological/cultural “stuff” with them. They had been influenced by the Egyptian culture.

Characteristics of Egyptian Culture:

• They believed in the gods and goddesses of Egyptian mythology-- were a polytheistic society

• They believed they were co-laborers with the gods

• They believed out of the chaotic a small hill rose, ben-ben

• They believed the god Atum spoke creation into existence

• They believed the god Heka, the god of magic, was the source this creative, sustaining, eternal power

• The believed families were especially important, and children were considered a blessing from the gods—imagine how the death of their children affected them

Characteristics of Israelites while in Egyptian:

• They had little freedom to make life decisions

• They had become bitter, harboring deep anger (Exodus 1:14)

• They had weariness in soul, they had lost hope

Characteristics of Israelites when leaving Egypt:

• The Egyptian culture had shaped their lives; Through an inceptual process Egyptian cultural/ customs creeped into their psyche and shaped their thoughts, decisions, worldview, and practices

• Over the years, things like bitterness had been transmitted to their children, their grandchildren, their great-grandchildren.

• Their negative attitude, grumbling/complaining, so forth shaped their children’s way of life. (Multigenerational trauma, epigenetics)

• When going through tough times on their journey, when things were tuff, they would resort to old ways of thinking and practices. This happens with those who use drugs to numb the pain, go to treatment, and have a reoccurrence when faced with a problem. We don’t understand why they don’t quit. We don’t understand why people continue to live as homeless. We don’t understand repetitive criminal behavior, especially sex offenders. As I learned by working with those who struggle with these issues, it takes a tremendous mindset-shift. This is not easy for them and for us.